Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But their land-use wars are not over. The county Board of Supervisors will have the final say Monday on a special-use permit filed by S&S Farms Inc. for the sawmill and on the Lantern Road rezoning filed by Hough-Nichols Inc.
The cases drew more than 100 people to a public hearing last month. Wednesday, 40 people listened as 15 landowners and lawyers made their cases again before the county Planning Commission.
In the end, the commission sided with residents concerned the proposals would clash with the neighborhoods of Lucas Estates and Bethel Woods, both located in rural settings.
In the sawmill case, S&S Farms Inc. wants to relocate to 8 acres off Piney Woods Road, less than a mile from Lucas Estates. Most opponents live there or nearby and are worried about noise, dust, water pollution and heavy truck traffic.
"I bought out in Lucas Estates for peace," said Jim Coulthard. "I spent a lot of my life savings."
Kendall Clay, a lawyer representing S&S, said unscientific testing done on the site indicated there would be no perceptible noise from the sawmill at Lucas Estates.
But Commissioner Ed Green rejected Clay's data. "You cannot define what those noises will be until you build that complex," he said.
The Planning Commission voted 3-2 to recommend denial to the supervisors, with Richard Daub and Richard Sullivan in the minority. Jim Martin and Joe Draper abstained because of possible conflicts of interest. Member Ward Teel was absent.
The Planning Commission also recommended unanimously that a sawmill would not be compatible in an agricultural and forestal district, a classification designed to protect farmland.
But that recommendation conflicts with a March 30 finding by the Agricultural and Forestal District Advisory Committee that it would be compatible. Both findings will go to the supervisors.
In the Hough-Nichols case, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended that the supervisors deny the request to rezone 22 acres beside Bethel Woods, a subdivision just west of Interstate 81 and Virginia 177 near Radford. Bethel Woods residents and neighboring farmers fear the rezoning to the R-3 category is a prelude to the development of a subdivision of mobile homes.
"We live in harmony with the farmers," said Bethel Woods organizer Paul Land. "To bring R-3 and trailers is going to disrupt that harmony."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***